Reflections of 2007

Gosh-I've been so blessed this year....

Some great times with family.

The birth of two beautiful granddaughters,

Travel to some beautiful places in the world.

The opportunity to send my son off to serve the Lord for two years.

All of TL's hard work for the last couple of years is paying off.....so glad for him (and me too!)

Health and strength-being forced to make changes because of a bad back and tummy.

And finally, the opportunity to know Him better......

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sister, Gin! (she's the middle child and tax deduction for the year 1959-oops, now you know her age) Love those curlie locks! Have a great day....

Talent oozing out her fingers

Just posting the latest creation of one of my amazingly talented daughters, Hero, who stopped by yesterday to show me her new purse created out of an old pair of guess jeans and 1/2 yard of cool fabric. It is reversible but she put the jeans on the inside so she could use the pockets for stuff! Way cool...
This is the child that can create a costume for the renaissance festival out of sheets and no pattern......sheesh....how does she do that?

BTW... I gave her the cool pink planner for Christmas ;)

La Oficina

My contribution to saving the earth..... all the cardboard packaging involved in our new office set up. TL & I decided our Christmas present was going to be a little visit to Ikea so we could set up our office furniture. I LOVE IT! As we were putting this little outfit together, we were discussing the geniusness of Ikea-everything is packaged perfectly-I have never missed a single screw anytime I have bought something there-their stuff is ingeniusly designed and really reasonably priced. So here's my home within my home-my office/craft room. There's still a little more tweaking of the decor that needs to happen-but if you know me, I am never lacking for a new project!

On to the health department news....I can now speak above a whisper but if I talk too much, I start coughing. (could this be some kind of evil plot to keep me quiet?) Arwen phoned me this morning and informed me that she thinks she has strep throat, Baby E. has pinkeye, Tres Yernos are devastated over the ASU loss, not sure how long it will take them to recover......

Sharing Christmas

Just sharing a few more images from Christmas for the out-of-town fam....I am still under the weather (see reference to "hacking out a lung" post a few days ago-yes, he gave it to me)
The ancient male bonding ritual around the barbecue grill. (see post regarding "Christmas eve fajitas)

This was what I was so giddy about prior to Christmas. I kept trying to work on these-but they wouldn't quit coming over so I could work on them...
This was a food storage inventory I made for the families. Inside is a pantry, freezer and food storage planner.

wii got a wii!
Her exact words, "Okay mom, where there's poop-there's gotta be a pony!"

Talking to Elder Steve was great. When the phone rang, I said "hello." He said, "hello". And I rattled off...."hola, como estas m'ijo!" There was dead silence. I think he wondered if he had the right number. It cracked me up. We all took turns talking to him and everyone wanted him to speak Spanish but he wouldn't until TL initiated the conversation, then he would reply. He speaks very good Spanish. His brothers and sisters were cracking up listening to him.

So tomorrow I will post about why I am saving a tree today by all the cardboard I have recycled..............

Here's to hoping for a decent night's sleep......

Christmas jammies v.2007

We had just the best time at Christmas. Here's our v.2007 jammies-ASU for the boys and black and maroon poinsettias for the girls. Even our babies had some! We had an awesome two hour chat with Elder Steve.

I will post more later-I have waved the white flag and surrendered to the virus invading my body........can't hardly speak above a whisper..

The Reason for the Season

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Happy, happy birthday to my mommy-who is 29 years old and holding....... Just think, mom, you could have easily been named Josephine.....instead of Patricia! (this post is done in sapphire blue-just for you!)

Another tradition

Well, hanging in there today: getting a lot done, BUT getting a sore throat. yuk. TL is hacking out a lung too. So really, it just couldn't be Christmas without someone sick....It has to be a tradition, right?

So I'm off to have some Airborne and Echinacea with lemon herb tea.

Fiesta de los Nietos

Party for the Grandkids!
Each year William Sonoma makes a really cool cupcake pan for the holidays. Last year it was a train and this year it was cars. So last year I started the tradition and prepared cakes and the trimmings and had the grandkids, plus extra cousins, come and decorate. It is so fun to prepare the stuff and watch the mommies help their little ones. The idea here is to eat at least as much candy as you put on your creation!These two photos are for great-grandma's benefit-the newest of the babies....they are growing fast!


Working hard on his creation!
This little one would flash me the cutest smile every time I would focus the camera on him.....
Getting just the right color of sprinkles is important!

Decorating your car is serious business. He was entertained for a long, long time. This is good because his attention span is well...pretty short!
Proudly displaying their creations! It's hard to pose while chewing on candy!

My diet for the last few days has consisted of things ending with the words "ose." Sucrose, maltose, dextrose......(sugar!) Ugg......but the kiddies had a great time. After Christmas I will purge the house......(I already hear groaning from the teenagers!)

Tradition #......uh 6

I think we are on #6....But this is a Christmas eve tradition that I have no idea how it got started. For some reason, my kids LOVE this movie. I think it is about the silliest thing I have ever seen but somehow I get sucked into it and end up perched on the edge of the couch watching it and cracking up with everyone else. Everyone always has to shout HO-HO-HO during the Santa scene. And inevitably my son-in-law always announces to us that Ralphie went to his high school prom. So that's our claim to fame.......?....

So I'm off for the second annual Fiesta de Los Nietos.....photos manana....

Update

Okay, crisis averted......with some ripped seams and a bit of tweaking-all is well....And thank heaven's for 3x jammies-found what I needed at Kohl's....whew!

It's the little things

Since I am in the middle of my latest Christmas mini-crisis, I thought it would be nice to stop and reflect on a few of the tender mercies that I have experienced in the last 24 hours:

Here's Bubba D.-studying for his final-without being nagged. Saints be praised! I have not failed as a mother! Dad said, "quick, get the camera!"

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying parking my car in the garage? My husband built this ingenious step device "so mom won't crash through the wall with the car." I am so loving getting up early to take Alyssa to school in my jammies and fuzzy slippers and not freezing my patootie!

Sharing time is planned for this Sunday-yes, 2 days before Christmas-it's my turn!
I know what I am having for dinner tonight-going in the crockpot soon.

Okay-I feel better-this too shall pass-the crisis will be solved shortly......it involves the Christmas jammies-I just made double work for myself......

Holiday Traditions #4 and #225

This morning while perusing my blog, I realized that I had spaced out and skipped #4 Holiday tradition. Perhaps that is a sign of the state of my brain these days! So I have randomly selected a number so those of you who are keeping track, will be completely confused.



Tradition #4
Jammies. A few years ago I started doing matching jammies for all the big people. I buy the same jammies in XXXL and use the fabric to make jammies for the little ones. This photo was from two years ago-somebody has lost my photo from last year!

Tradition #225
In keeping with the jammies theme, it just wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't sitting in front of the sewing machine for hours-I mean-it just wouldn't. I don't know why-but I have to make something every Christmas. It started years ago when I made my little sisters some Barbie "campers" out of cardboard boxes and leftover fabric. I think I was about 8-9 years old. Creating homemade gifts for Christmas has been happening ever since-to one degree or another, depending upon how far advanced in pregnancy I was at the time or how much I was working.

Well, I'm off to go visiting teaching and check off a few more things on my list!

What is about the most annoying thing on earth today?

Running out of bobbin thread less than 12 inches before the project is done! This is my father in law's Christmas present and since I have so much need for orange thread...well, I am a little miffed.

2nd most annoying thing on earth today?

Spending a jillion dollars on bifocal contacts and STILL not being able to see to thread the needle!

(I can just hear Arwen saying to me, "Mom, you have WAY too much time on your hands." My reply, "yep, I do, and i earned every minute of it!"

So I'm off to take a few deep cleansing breaths, rewind my bobbin and get the magnifying glass out so I can thread the needle.....Chao

Holiday Tradition #5

Stockings
On Christmas morning when I was growing up, and we would get up ten times before 5 AM, my mom would finally give in and tell us we had to stay in our rooms and she would bring our Christmas stockings in to open first on our beds. There were always lots of cool little things in our stockings and it satisfied us and held us off for a few minutes longer. Now as my own children have grown up, I have made stockings a pretty big deal and it is amazing what little treasures you can stuff into stockings! It is really fun to figure out neat stocking stuffers.....

Holiday Tradition #3

We will never have a white Christmas. This is as close as we will ever get........frost......We woke up this morning to the AZ version of a white Christmas. Oh-we have had a few snow sprinkles before....but not enough to call it white.

And so long to the good old burb'....Ye have served me well....through three teenage driver trainers....three accidents.....carpools, hospital visits, long-distance drives.....so long..farewell, au revoir.....adios.....

Well, Hello-Tahoe... (sing to the tune of Hello Dolly) Notice something great about this???? It is parked in the GARAGE... This is our attempt at downsizing....I wanted smaller but TL got a fab deal. I despise car shopping as much as I despise Walmart. So I tell him to go find a deal, leave me totally out of it, and I'll just pick up the vehicle when it's over. That's what we did today...

Holiday Tradition #2

I have no idea how this "tradition" got started but after opening each and every present on Christmas morning, everyone shouts.HEEEEYYYYYY.. (as in hey-drawn out very long). We take turns opening presents and watch each other open the present, after which the required hey....is said, (or shouted) then we move on. So this causes Christmas morning to be very long, due to the largeness of our family, and the decibel level to be very high in the house. This year we even taped a Heyyyyyy ...for Elder Steve on a tape we sent him for his missionary Christmas so he can have a hey...just for him. I know this sounds very lame...but it wouldn't be Christmas morning without our hey........

Holiday Tradition #1

A few years ago I was wondering....hmmm. how can I get the kids to want to come home for the holidays, especially the son-in-laws???? (I guess my charming personality wasn't enough to get them to come-I thought I had to bribe them...) The answer is FOOD! So here's one of our holiday traditions, Christmas Eve fajitas, custom cooked by Dad, a.k.a. TL. It is amazing how much the kids look forward to it-talk about it-and I actually love it too because he cuts up and cooks the meat, I order Serrano's rice and bean dip, we cook up some fresh tortillas from Costco....voile.....a meal with happy people!

Another Sunny Day in AZ?

Lookee what we woke up to today! Fog! Very strange......It is really sunny in some areas and very scary to see in other areas. (I DID NOT take this photo-someone from the AZ Republic did) But it is kind of cool to have a different kind of weather here.

Just another day

I have spent most of the day so far in the car, running around getting a few more Christmas gifts, I have driven over 50 miles! For what, you ask? Well, it's a secret.......I spent most of yesterday working at home on Christmas projects......more secrets....tee hee!



Since it is so gloomy and cold (at least for AZ) I had a yummy lunch of my homemade vegie barley soup and I am going to attempt to have a healthy dinner tonight with this: I have a ham bone and will dump it all into the pressure cooker and hope for the best! So here's hoping the teenagers won't rebel......I'm doin' my darndest to keep them healthy despite themselves.

Note***When you have a large family there is ALWAYS someone who hates the dinner. It doesn't matter what you cook........So I have always tried to please as many of the masses as possible and the rest can starve! (maybe that's why there is always food hidden away.........)

Later: They ate it! Not a lot, but they ate it...woo hoo. It was absolutely delish!!!

Spanish

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE to speak Spanish?? It has been a passion of mine for years but I never had the opportunity to really get into it until the last few years.

Flashback to 30 plus, plus odd years ago to high school Spanish. I never really appreciated my classes. My first year Spanish class was a joke--second year Spanish was much harder. I had an 75-year-old (or so she seemed that old) teacher, very proper Spanish lady (from Espana) who was very strict. We had a kid in our class, Tony, who had the most horrendous accent and I think it was his goal to crack her up, which he did on almost a daily basis, because his pronunciation was SO bad. We used to have to cut articles out of the newspaper, translate them into Spanish, then memorize them and recite them in front of the class. I used to look for the teeniest, tiniest, shortest articles I could find so that I didn't have to memorize so much.

Flash forward a few years, I am married to a man who speaks fluent Spanish after a mission to Southeast Mexico-I have traveled all over Mexico, including crossing into Guatemala, visited Spain and I have a burning desire to learn Spanish.

Flash forward again a few years, my husband is serving in a Spanish speaking branch (small congregation) and I am leading the hymns in church! Now leading the hymns in another language is kinda like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time, (or is it patting your stomach and rubbing your head?) ANYWAY, it's HARD!

After a semester of college Spanish-mostly a review-and lots of practice----well, the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know! But I have mustered up courage these days to approach people who I either think speak Spanish or I hear them speaking Spanish and converse with them. They are usually delighted to converse with me and are so surprised to see a "gringa" speaking so well.....disclaimer.... I am NOT fluent.....but I do have a very good acento! I have some dear, dear friends at church who help me all the time..Now with a son on a Spanish speaking mission, well, the drive is still there to learn the language.............nos vemos!

Random Blathering

I stole the title of this post from Cathy Zielske, one of my scrapbook heroes, because I think it is so funny, and appropriate for today's post. Exhibit #1: Just for the record, I despise Walmart. I hate going there. Yet, why on earth am I there nearly every other day? Is it because I live about a mile IN-BETWEEN two Super Walmarts? Is it because when I need cereal, milk, batteries, tampons, ink cartridges, pens, contact lenses and other sorts of miscellany I can get them in one stop at a fairly reasonable price????? {sigh} yes, I guess so. I am a victim of convenience!

Exhibit #2:

Holiday pillowcases for grandkids, courtesy of....you guessed it.... cheap Walmart Christmas fabric! (1 yard per pillowcase @ $2.00)

Exhibit #3:

Cute grandbaby hysterically pounding the glass window in the door of my office. She is pulling herself up onto everything...look out walking world, here I come. (This one is for great-grandma) (sorry bout the flash-)

Happy Saturday---everyone in AZ-stay dry--we're lovin' the rain again!!